The lightning element mana had found a new outlet to affect the spear guy now. The spear guy looked like his body had suddenly gotten naked. He felt like he had reverted to being a child again, feeling this cold as an unranked existence would.
As a result of being electrocuted, the spear guy's reaction and thought process had gotten slower. Ronny wasn't someone to let go of this opportunity. He got behind the guy's back with a spin while twisting the dagger stuck at the guy's thigh. His second dagger was going to aim at the spear guy's right lung right below the bottommost bone of the ribcage.
'This is it. There's no escape this time. I'll die for sure here.'
As the spear guy fought the ghost, his mana sense warned him of his current conditions. Ghost because every time he had tried to get to Ronny, all he had ended up with were afterimages.
But just when the same ghost was about to run the dagger into the guy's right lung from below the ribcage, a distinct metallic clunk was heard. The spear guy had found that his right side was still fine and had not been damaged in any way. He soon realized that his teammate had intervened.
"Ashton, you idiot. Fall back. I'll cover you."
Ashton the spear guy soon heard a familiar voice that had irked him for some years now. That's because the lady's voice sounded manlier than him. But the same voice that had become his nightmare was sounding like the sweetest hymn from heaven he could hear in his current condition.
'I swear to all the things I hold dear, if I can survive the battle with this ghost, I'll take that lady gorilla Hilda out on a date.'
Ashton made a pact with himself after he was saved by Hilda. She had proposed to him so many times. After seeing her body juiced-up on male hormones, he naturally rejected Hilda's advances. She had more well-defined abs than him, which was a turnoff for the guy.
But he had decided that if she could save his life here, then he would try to look past the ordinary standards of feminine beauty and see Hilda for what she was as a person.
"Yoooooooooou
Noooooot
Goooooooing
Anywhere."
Ashton's daydreams of romance were soon put on hold after he heard a voice that sounded abnormally stretched to him. The voice sounded both far and close to him.
'No. This isn't it.'
Ashton dropped his earlier perception of sound. The source of that voice was closing in on him at a rapid pace. That was the reason it was heard as if it was far and near to him at the same time.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Ashton released a determined roar and focused on his movement spell and sent it to overdrive. His right thigh that had been pierced by Ronny's dagger started spurting blood as a result. Though most of the blood was evaporated by the flames that were present because of his movement spell, some of it fell to the ground and left a trail behind.
But Ashton didn't care about the excessive blood loss. He focused on retreating because his life depended on it. His speed would soon enable him to travel quickly towards Lady Gorilla.
But before he could feel safe in Hilda's shadow, another dagger struck his neck from behind him. This time it passed through without any obstruction. That's because Ashton could feel Ronny had stacked his lightning element spell to increase its piercing potential.
As a result, Ronny's lightning enhanced dagger tore through Ashton's defensive mana layer and pierced his neck as soon as the attack was initiated.
"Noooooo! Ashton!"
Hilda's loud and screeching yell rang in the surroundings.
Swoooooo!
Swooooo!
Swooooo!
Ashton could hear loads of arrows whistling past all around him. Hilda was trying her finest to cover his retreat. But apparently, it wasn't enough to stop the ghost from taking his prey by surprise.
But it wasn't like Ronny was unscathed. He spurted a hint of blood from his mouth, as he had to stack the Blitz Bolt spell. This was to deal with the guy's defensive mana layer in one swift move.
The arrows zoomed past Ronny. Some of them even struck him. But by then, his updated and improved defensive spell– Blitz Shield had manifested.
This defensive spell fought against the corrosive water element residue left behind by the struck arrows. It got rid of almost all the over-time damage delivered by the corrosive water element residue while suffering next to no damage.
Ronny had already anticipated Hilda would use the time he had to slow down at a place to attack Ahston as an opportunity to target him. He still carried on targeting Ashton because he was confident in maintaining his defensive spell against the barrage of arrows.
But with every hit by the arrow and every bit of shield regeneration, a large chunk of Ronny's mana was consumed away. He couldn't maintain his spell combo for long if the consumption remained this high.
That's why Ronny finally released his fire-element spells to take care of the stray arrows that were flying towards him. A bunch of fire snakes appeared all around him. They opened their mouths and executed another fire element spell on their own– the breath of fire.
Suddenly, the battle area was lit up as a mini firestorm was summoned in the surrounding area. The fire was brighter than what Ashton had conjured. The fire snakes released their breaths of fire and took care of all the remaining arrows aimed at Ronny.
'Haah! I need to break into E-Rank, like yesterday.'
The butcher thought as he retreated away from Ashton after his fire spells were executed. The butcher considered the guy dead. There was no need to risk landing a finishing blow and forcing Hilda to do something desperate while he stayed at the same place for any longer.
With his mortal blow to Ashton, the butcher had given a foregone conclusion to a love story that was soon going to end even before it began.